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Ralph Waldo Emerson - Wealth
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Who shall tell what did befall, 
Far away in time, when once, 
Over the lifeless ball, 
Hung idle stars and suns? 
What god the element obeyed? 
Wings of what wind the lichen bore, 
Wafting the puny seeds of power, 
Which, lodged in rock, the rock abrade? 
And well the primal pioneer 
Knew the strong task to it assigned, 
Patient through Heaven`s enormous year 
To build in matter home for mind. 
From air the creeping centuries drew 
The matted thicked low and wide, 
This must the leaves of ages strew 
The granite slab to clothe and hide, 
Ere wheat can wave its golden pride. 
What smiths, and in what furnace, rolled 
(In dizzy aeons dim and mute 
The reeling brain can ill compute) 
Copper and iron, lead and gold? 
What oldest star the fame can save 
Of races perishing to pave 
The planet with a floor of lime? 
Dust is their pyramid and mole: 
Who saw that ferns and palms were pressed 
Under the trembling mountain`s breast, 
In the safe herbal of the coal? 
But when the quarried means were piled, 
All is waste and worthless, till 
Arrives the wise selecting will, 
And,out of slime and chaos, Wit 
Draws the threads of fair and fit. 
Then temples rose, and towns, and marts, 
The shop of toil, the hall of arts; 
Then flew the sail across the seas 
To feed the North from tropic trees; 
The storm-wind wove, the torrent span, 
Where they were bid the rivers ran; 
New slaves fulfilled the poet`s dream, 
Galvanic wire, strong-shouldered steam. 
Then docks were built, and crops were stored, 
And ingots added to the hoard. 
But, though light-hearted man forget, 
Remembering Matter pays her debt: 
Still, though her motes and masses, draw 
Electric thrills and ties of Law, 
Which bind the strength of Nature wild 
To the conscience of a child.
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